EMS supported Residency Project artists Alison McNeill and Sasha Savaloni’s recent visit to Spain where they researched and received expert tuition in Spanish Song. Find out more about their trip below...
Spanish Song Research Trip!
Since starting our residency with Enterprise Music Scotland, we have decided to record a Spanish Song Album including composers such as Turina, De Falla, Rodrigo, Granados and Anton Garcia Abril. We wanted to get some expert tuition and in April we travelled to Spain with the support of EMS.
We had coaching from Miguel Angel Arqued Gonzalez of the Teatro Real, Julio Alexis Munoz and Jorge Robaina of the Escuela Superior de Canto and had the wonderful opportunity to work with Spain's leading, award winning composer Anton Garcia Abril.
Our work started with Miguel Angel Arqued Gonzalez. We mainly focused on a couple of pieces which are new additions to our repertoire; Federico Mompou’s beautiful cycle Combat del Somni and 3 songs by Anton Garcia Abril. Working on the songs by Garcia Abril were especially important to us as we were going to perform them for the composer himself at the end of our trip.
The coaching with Miguel was fantastic. After our coaching, we could immediately feel the difference in our performances. Both of us were much more aware of how to complement each other in performance, match our phrasing and articulation.
Whilst in Madrid we took in some of sights. The Retiro park, some concerts and we also had the opportunity to watch a masterclass by American soprano Renee Flemming at the Escuela Superior de Canto. Very inspiring!
Next session was with accompanist, Julio Munoz. Julio is one of the leading accompanists of Spanish music and has a lot of experience working with some of the great singers of Spanish song including legendary mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza. We performed a varied set of songs for Julio and gained a lot of valuable knowledge. The highlight was working on Mompou’s Combat del Somni and De Falla’s Siete Canciones Espanolas. Julio had met and performed for Mompou and gave us a lot of insight about his music and shy character. He worked with us on the text of Combat del Somni, which is set in Catalan, as well as a great explanation of each song in the cycle.  He also talked in detail about the folk rhythms of Spain in De Falla’s cycle and the importance of rhythmic freedom in some of the folksongs.
We have recorded a video of Manuel De Fallas’ Jota, please take a listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk7nQDn6AyA
Jorge Robaina, who is one of the top pianists of Spanish music, was our next tutor. We worked mostly with him on the songs of Anton Garcia Abril as he has a lot of experience working with the composer. We also performed Enrique Granados’ song cycle, Tonadillas, for Jorge. It was especially fascinating to hear Jorge’s views on the importance of articulation in Granados’ La Maja de Goya from Tonadillas.
The last part of our Spain trip project was to meet the renowned composer, Anton Garcia Abril. This was a real highlight.  Abril was an incredibly nice man. Anton talked about his compositions and his future plans. He told us about his collaboration with violinist Hilary Hahn, who was to give a world premiere to Anton’s new violin work in America.  It was an incredible experience to perform 3 of Garcia Abril’s songs for him. We were very happy to see that he was impressed with our performance and Alison’s Spanish. He showed great interest in our project and introduced us to a few of his other songs to add to our repertoire.
After meeting with Anton Garcia Abril, we had the best meal of our trip! Â Our work in Madrid was done and it was time to relax! Â Alison went on to beautiful Valencia to receive some specialist language coaching in Catalan whilst Sasha practiced for Plug Contemporary music Festival.
Overall, it was a fantastic and productive trip. We met a lot of inspirational people and learned a lot about performing Spanish song. Special thanks to Enterprise Music Scotland for contributing towards our travel costs.Â
